1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to applying fertilizer and more particularly to injecting the fertilizer into the water supply of an automatic sprinkler system.
2. Description of Prior Art
Homeowners are continually having to fertilize their lawns and gardens to replace the nutrients which the lawn and plants take out. This is usually done by spreading a dry fertilizer, or spraying on a liquid fertilizer by hand. This is very time consuming and bothersome for the typical homeowner. It is also expensive to hire a lawn service to do the fertilizing.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,570,508 to John A. Boggs and Billy R. Boggs (1971) most closely resembles the purpose and function of my apparatus. The Boggs fertilizer injector works by means of a prop driven pump. This pump is placed in the water supply piping to the sprinklers. This will restrict the flow, and reduce the amount of water to the sprinklers. There is a need to get the pumping mechanism out of the water supply. The Boggs system was designed for large commercial use. It would be very expensive for the private homeowner, even if it could be down-sized to fit the private sprinkler systems.
The private home sprinkler system consists of many sprinkler lines. Some of these sprinkler lines are for the lawn and some are for the flowerbeds. A fertilizer which is good for the lawn may be harmful to flowering or broadleaf plants. The Boggs system continually injects fertilizer when the water is flowing. It cannot distinguish between the different sprinkler lines.